The satirical news organization "The Onion" caused a huge controversy after tweeting an offensive description of 9-year-old Oscar nominee Quvenzhané Wallis that included the c-word. Wallis was became the youngest Academy Award nominee for Best Actress after her breakout role in the critically-acclaimed Beasts of the Southern Wild.
The tweet was "retweeted more than 500 times and favorited by some 400 users" before it was deleted an hour later, reported The Associated Press.
"At what point does “satire” fall into the disrespectful and disgusting category? Just wondering," asked Uptown magazine.
"This isn’t me mistaking the Onion’s sarcasm and satire for an actual headline. This is a human being w/a job calling a 9 y.o. a cunt," tweeted writer Dream Hampton.
Jamilah Lemieux at EBONY notes the vitriol toward the 9-year-old is "not at all surprising" ...
I'm more surprised when the world gets it right when it comes to Black girls and women than I am when they get it wrong. Sisters are far too often on the butt-end of a joke or diss lobbed by some White folks or our own brothers. The First Lady's brains, body and bangs are the subject of scrutiny from both writers and conservative leaders who couldn't even level their White and male privilege to match her accomplishments. Beyonce was a treasonist for using a backing track at the Inauguration. And now, on what should have been the most sparkly day of Quvenzhané's life, some fool made a cheap attempt at getting LOLz by calling her a dirty word.
I wish that Quvenzhané could enjoy her newfound fame without these hard-earned Black girl lessons, but they would have caught her on the block, in the classroom, on the internet at some point even if she hadn't garnered an Oscar nod. The outpouring of praise and love for the young actress is exceptional, but the disrespect? When you're Black and female, it is to be expected. When you are self-possessed and in the public eye on top of that? It's on another level.
The Onion CEO Steve Hannah released this statement on the company's official Facebook page late this morning:
Dear Readers,
On behalf of The Onion, I offer my personal apology to Quvenzhané Wallis and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the tweet that was circulated last night during the Oscars. It was crude and offensive—not to mention inconsistent with The Onion’s commitment to parody and satire, however biting.
No person should be subjected to such a senseless, humorless comment masquerading as satire.
The tweet was taken down within an hour of publication. We have instituted new and tighter Twitter procedures to ensure that this kind of mistake does not occur again. In addition, we are taking immediate steps to discipline those individuals responsible.
Miss Wallis, you are young and talented and deserve better. All of us at The Onion are deeply sorry.
They couldn't even let a 9-year-old Black girl be a princes for a day. Shameful.
They did, at least, actually apologize, and not go "we're sorry if you're offended (we're not)".
Posted by: Said | 25 February 2013 at 12:00
It's going to take a brave, brave soul to publicly say that rappers & singers have been saying much harsher things about Black women for years now. I wonder if THEY will ever apologize.
Posted by: Purity | 25 February 2013 at 14:15
Purity: The Ebony writer quoted above DID mention that Black men and rappers have said harsh things about Black women.
I don't think the point of that article or Rob's piece was to ask for an apology. It was simply to note that a disgusting and horrible thing was said about a nine year old girl.
FWIW, I'm not sure how sincere is the apology. But I am very happy to see The Onion understands it crossed a line.
Posted by: FB | 25 February 2013 at 15:23
This is sick and sad! How could anyone even think to say such a sick and sad comment about an innocent little girl?!
Posted by: chris w | 25 February 2013 at 16:23
I think you should remove the quotation marks around "apologizes" as I think this is an actual apology and not a 'sorry if anyone was offended' non-apology. And I suspect someone at The Onion is looking for a job today
Posted by: reggieh | 25 February 2013 at 18:21
@Reggie: Point well taken. I removed the quotation marks. The apology is not boilerplate at all.
Posted by: Rod Mc | 25 February 2013 at 18:37
I really feel this is disgusting. She's 9 for God's sake. I feel the only reason they took it down was because they received major pushback. the kind they probably aren't used to getting. They don't usually apologize, but this time they did, so something major must have gone down. I'm not into the "at least they apologized" portion of forgivers. Because like I said i don't think they did it because they knew they went too far, but because someone or some organizations/major people pulled their coattails. I don't know what else I would want them to do.
Q's mother may have even kept this from her, so she may not know some organization called her this. Her mama seems pretty on top of all this hoopla and is trying to keep her daughter on a regular schedule and down to earth with chores and everything else. The Onion's Facebook page was blasted I'm sure.
Posted by: Diva1961 | 25 February 2013 at 20:06
What does rap music have to do with calling a nine year old, a cunt? Is Quvenzhane Wallis a rapper? Racism is all over this issue and apparently, from both fronts. Eww.
Posted by: Palm Reader | 26 February 2013 at 07:54
It ain't up to them to give Miss Wallis her time to shine. She always has it! Listen, these fools will continue to say the most hurtful, disrespectful and downright evil things to try to take the spotlight off of our luminious, uber-talented and extremely beautiful black women. I love Jamiliah Lemieux's point of "The First Lady's brains, body and bangs are the subject of scrutiny from both writers and conservative leaders who couldn't even level their White and male privilege to match her accomplishments."
These human turds already have all of the advantages in the world which is why they are given these high profile jobs although they are extremely incompetent and the sad fact is THEY ALREADY KNOW IT! That's why it just kills them that a 9 year old black girl outshines them. Quvenzhané Wallis has accomplished more in 6 years (which is how old she was when she portrayed Hushpuppy) than these losers will in their entire miserable lives and Miss Wallis didn't have to have her Daddy call in a favor to one of his buddies in order for her to do accomplish her record-breaking nomination. She did it by pure talent and she knows she knows it! Do you know how dangerous somebody like Quvenzhané Wallis is to a no-talent hack? And the fact that they said tweeted this vulgar comment shows the cowardice of such sub-human behavior. Until the Good Lord sees fit to take out the garbage, we will have to contend with worthless fools like that idiot at The Onion and the platforms that give them a voice, but let's stand ready to remind them of what they are, A HUMAN TURD. And what do we do with turds after we squeeze them out? We flush them down the toilet so that they can join all of the other turds in the sewers where they are out of sight and out of mind.
Posted by: Distant Lover | 26 February 2013 at 12:08
apparently this is a common "joke" for some people to find the nicest, sweetest person in a group and call them the "c" word since everyone knows they arent. that's what supposedly makes it "funny". going for shock value
i guess i get that type of humor (although i personally detest the "c" word), but this wasnt funny at all.
Posted by: fff | 26 February 2013 at 16:41
Personally, I was also outraged to see Quvenzhane sitting with her mother in front of a worldwide television audience, only to be used as the butt of an on-air Seth McFarlane joke about George Clooney's penchant for relationships with very young women. Seth hasn't apologized, and it's just one more reason this Academy Awards was one of the worst ever. No taste, no class.
Posted by: Evan | 27 February 2013 at 02:39
I wonder if the Black community would be so "outraged' if the girl was any race other than Black? The answer - NO!
And Lil Wayne, Rick Ross, and Chris Brown will do more to damage the mind of a "young" Black child than some satirical stupid comment from some comedy shop. Yet we don't have a problem with that don't we?
I'm at a point where I'm sick and tired of the hypocrisy among Black people! They are woefully ignorant (and proud of it), and they are homophobic and bigoted! We raise all kinds of hell over Trayvon Martin, but we are silent about the mass murders in our urban cities.
I'll just sit back and wait for the next "twitter and facebook" warrior to get pissed off by an event in popular culture while sitting on their azz doing nothing about everything else!
*sighs*
Posted by: Black Pegasus | 27 February 2013 at 08:52